POPE Francis: Qualified.

If you’re considering the position, I recommend starting your preparation early; in fact, adolescence is not too soon: The youngest pope, Benedict IX, was 15 when elected in 1032, but as BIX abdicated at age 27, a youthful beginning does not promise a lengthy papacy. The papal bell curve doesn’t seem to favor either end of the age spectrum generally. Only five popes to date have been 80 or older out of the starting gate. The average pope across history was 55 when he began his service to the church in that capacity. But remember: People didn’t always enjoy the longevity they do now. These days popes typically begin in their 50s, 60, and 70s. For the record, 14 popes ruled for less than a month, and the longest-reigning one, Pius IX, lived for 31 years and seven months in that role.

So what should you do in the meantime to get ready for the role? Some popes were laymen (I should note: Being male improves your chances for election considerably, notwithstanding the long-held legendary attraction of Pope Joan), but the vast majority were ordained. So priesthood is a plus, topped off with a wonderful Roman education at a pontifical institute of learning, a high-level job in one of the offices of the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy, and doing time in highly visible diocesan chanceries in large cities. Attaining the status of bishop and cardinal tremendously increases your odds even though it’s not required by church law.

Medieval and renaissance popes had the advantages of coming from princely or aristocratic Roman families, but never mind if you don’t have a fine pedigree. Sixtus V was the son of a laundress, and Pius X the child of a seamstress. A few popes were renowned preachers, like the Franciscan Sixtus IV, and others were learned as lawyers, professors, and poets. But as many had their beginnings as monks, anchorites, even a hermit—though that latter didn’t work out so well when Celestine V, elected against his will at age 85 in 1294, abdicated after six months to return to his hermitage.

In centuries past it was helpful to know how to organize a crusade or at least to command an army, though that’s no longer a particularly useful papal skill. In the 10th century being wicked wasn’t a deal-breaker, but most popes have been well-meaning men and more than a few were martyred or popularly acclaimed as saints.

Scripture
• On skills needed for leadership: Matthew 18:1-5; Mark 8:34-36; 9:33-37; 10:42-45; Luke 22:24-30; Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Timothy 3:1-7

Online
• "24 popes, some good, in years leading up to first millennium" by Joseph Gallagher, National Catholic Reporter, 3/17/95

Books
• By Eamon Duffy: Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes and Ten Popes Who Shook the World (both from Yale University Press)

Wealthy folks have told me they reject Christianity categorically because it's a religion for poor people. The gospel, however, is for "all the world," including every zip code. The task for rich Christians is to make sure that the distance between zip codes isn't so vast that the wealthy forget their commitments to the disadvantaged.

The suspicion that the well-to-do aren't welcome among the people of God doesn't come from the Old Testament. In biblical theology prosperity was a key way Israel's God was understood to demonstrate who the righteous were. Even within the ancient "prosperity gospel," however, was an admonition to care for the stranger, widow, and orphan—those most at risk in society. Practices like gleaning leftovers in the fields, community-wide festival days, and jubilee remittance of debts were ways Hebrew society provided for all its members and sought to restore the balance when the gap between haves and have-nots became too wide.

The writing prophets of the 9th through 5th centuries B.C. were very vocal about the plight of the poor and the responsibility of the rich precisely because this balance had not been maintained. The wider the chasm between a society's privileged and needy classes, the louder the prophetic call for justice became.

Jesus does come among us as a poor man without property or high station. Through him God chooses to identify with the vulnerable who also have no place to lay their heads at night. The Gospel of Luke is particularly strident in its reprimands to the wealthy class—an indication that "Theophilus," to whom this gospel is addressed, is a well-heeled Greek or representative of a community of Greeks for whom the urgent call to establish justice is especially appropriate. Stories like that of the rich man who came to Jesus and went away sad; of Zacchaeus who actively cheated his neighbors; or that of the rich man who ignored poor Lazarus to his peril, were alarms intended for Luke's target audience. None of these stories condemn the reality of wealth, but all compel the listener to make better choices.

It's the love of money, not proximity to it, that's defined as the root of all evil. In this sense the poor are just as likely to fall into the idolatry of money as the rich are. If "in God we trust" is really your motto, giving some coins away won't hurt.

Scripture
• Proverbs 29:7, 14; 30:7-9; Sirach 4:1-10; 13:23; 27:1-3; 34:21-22; Amos 6:1-11; Luke 21:1-4; 1 Corinthians 11:18-29; 1 Timothy 6:6-10; James 2:1-13; 5:1-6

Online
• Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium

Books
• The Moral Measure of the Economy by Chuck Collins and Mary Wright (Orbis Books)
• All They Want Is My Money? Tips for Stewardship by Patricia Rice (Liguori Publications)